The present invention relates to a magnetic tape loading apparatus, and in particular to a magnetic tape loading apparatus of a tape recorder wherein a magnetic tape received in a tape cassette is partially taken out and wrapped around a head drum provided therein. The present invention may be embodied, for example, in a video tape recorder of a helical scan type.
An important problem in the magnetic recording art relates to the need for a tape loading apparatus of a cassette tape recorder which can be simplified in construction with a view to minimizing the manufacturing cost and the size of the tape recorder and which will provide high reliability and accuracy for control of the stopping position of loading poles of the tape loading apparatus on slow-motion reproduction, still reproduction, in particular where movement of the magnetic tape is intermittent.
Various types of tape loading apparatus have been previously developed. One example of tape loading apparatus involves a technique in which vertical loading poles and inclined loading poles are operated in association with rotation of a ring gear provided below a head drum having magnetic heads so that a magnetic tape is wrapped around the head drum over a predetermined length. A further example of loading apparatus is one in which a magnetic tape is wrapped around a head drum by operating loading poles driven through a link mechanism comprising a plurality of links. However, because of the design limitations imposed on the provision of a plurality of gears for the rotation of the ring gear in the ring gear type tape loading apparatus and the provision of a speed-decreasing device for allowing the loading poles to be driven at a low speed in the link type tape loading apparatus, difficulty has been encountered in simplifying the tape loading apparatus according to the conventional techniques. Furthermore, none of the conventional tape loading apparatus satisfactorily performs accurate control of stopping position of the loading pole on slow-motion reproduction or still reproduction.